In response to this line in a NYtimes article:

“Mr. Abssi said he derived much of his spiritual guidance from Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Bukhari, a ninth-century Islamic scholar. A recent study by the Defense Department’s Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, N.Y., listed Mr. Bukhari among the 20 Islamic scholars who had greater influence today among militant Arabs than Mr. bin Laden…”

AmalA is justfiably incensed:

Mr. Bukhari??????

It’s like calling Thomas Aquinas Mr. Aquinas!

It’s an interesting slip: comes out of lumping people together and collapsing past and present so history itself is erased: so now we have Mr. Abssi, Mr. Bin Laden, and Mr. Bukhari!

Makes perfect orientalist sense!

She could not have put it better. ”Mr. Bukhari” is like calling Thomas Aquinas Mr. Aquinas!